Abstract
Species-specific conservation is important for maintaining the integrity of ecological communities but is dependent on sufficiently understanding multiple aspects of a species’ ecology. Species-specific data are commonly lacking for species in geographic areas with little research and species perceived to have insufficient charisma or economic importance. Despite their widespread distribution across central and North America and status as a furbearing mammal, little is known about the ecology of Grey Foxes Urocyon cinereoargenteus compared to other species of furbearing mammals. To understand what is known about this species, especially factors affecting population dynamics, we performed a systematic review of the scientific literature. We found 234 studies about Grey Foxes, with studies increasing substantially over time but with geographic gaps in the Great Plains and most of Mexico and central America. Most studies we reviewed examined relative abundance or occupancy (n= 35), habitat associations (n= 30), primarily as part of larger mammalian community studies, or spatiotemporal effects of other mammalian carnivores (n= 19), predominately Coyote Canis latrans. Grey Foxes were primarily forest-associated although associations with specific forest communities or anthropogenically disturbed habitats varied among studies. Multiple studies across ecoregions reported this fox as among both the most- and least-abundant mammalian carnivore. The inter-specific effects of Coyote were often, but not exclusively, negative and were likely mediated by landscape composition and human development. Importantly, very few studies examined population-effects of coyotes on Grey Foxes. Studies of population trends, demographics, and space use of Grey Foxes were comparatively rare and small inter- and intra-study sample sizes limited our ability to infer broader patterns. We suggest multiple avenues for future research to better understand the population status of this species throughout their range.
Highlights
Conservation biology has seen dramatic increases in effectiveness in the last century, from increasing conservation of ecological communities through bioreserves to species-specific conservation strategies
We focused our review on five categories we deemed most relevant to the management and conservation of these foxes defined as follows: 1) Abundance: spatiotemporal estimates of the absolute or relative number of individuals, density, or occupancy; 2) Demography: estimates of population vital rates; 3) Habitat: modeling aspects of ecology or behavior of Grey Foxes as a function of one or more habitat features; 4) Co-occurrence with dominant carnivores: evaluated the spatiotemporal distribution or interactions of Grey Foxes in relation to other carnivores; and 5) Space Use: spatial distribution of individual Grey Fox
Our review provides a summary of the ecology of Grey Foxes for researchers and managers, while highlighting several existing gaps in our knowledge
Summary
Conservation biology has seen dramatic increases in effectiveness in the last century, from increasing conservation of ecological communities through bioreserves to species-specific conservation strategies. The goal of this paper, was to provide a range-wide review and synthesis of the currently available scientific literature on grey foxes to better understand their population status and ecology and identify geographic and topical gaps in the literature as avenues for future research. Bauder et al (2020) found evidence of declines in Grey Foxes in Illinois over 43 years and two studies in the midwestern USA found that they were the least prevalent species in the native carnivore community (Lesmeister et al 2015; Rich et al 2018).
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